A top engineering officer in the Quds Force, the extraterritorial arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Iran yesterday, the military says.
The IDF says the strike in Mahallat, in central Iran, killed Mahdi Vafaei, chief of engineering in the IRGC Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps.
“Throughout his 20 years as the head of the engineering branch of the corps, Vafaei advanced underground projects across Lebanon and Syria,” the military says in a statement.
The IDF says Vafaei led efforts to establish subterranean infrastructure for Hezbollah and the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, “and managed dozens of underground projects in Lebanon utilized for the storage of advanced weapons.”
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
— Gabriella Jacobs, multimedia journalist
Support our work
Support our work
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
